I would like to discuss my favorite summer movie, Pacific Rim, and the best anime airing this season, Attack on Titan, and their interesting parallels. WARNING: For those who have not watched Pacific Rim or Attack on Titan (or not caught up), THERE WILL BE SOME SPOILERS! For Attack on Titan, if you have only seen like 5 or less episodes, this has some pretty big spoilers. For Pacific Rim, there are some spoilers there, too, so best to see the movie first!

"Pacific Rim" is an example of what a live-action should be, when anime-inspired. Some say it had no substance, but I disagree. I can easily point at so many in-depth moments for what it was, but this post doesn't revolve around that. Anyway, "Pacific Rim" is basically, in a nutshell, a live-action mecha vs. giant monster (great combination!) but doesn't lack heart.

"Attack on Titan" is an anime, based off an ongoing manga, that is currently airing this season (19 episodes so far). This series has a lot of depth and heart, and while action is present, it focused a lot of human emotion and the fear of being eaten. They've lived a hundred years behind walls, until one day....a 60 meter titan breeches the 50 meter wall (typically, the largest titan is 15 or 30 meters).

Now, how could these two have similarities?

Giant walls JUST DON'T WORK - This should be common sense, but apparently not so. In Pacific Rim, many leaders thought "The Wall of Life" was a good option since currently, Jaegars were getting destroyed. However, it only takes a Kaiju SECONDS to break through the wall. In Attack on Titan, for a hundred years humanity lived in peace behind a 50 meter wall, since titans usually get up to 15 or 30 meters. Eren and Armin seemed to know that they would NOT be safe forever, and on that day....the wall is breeched when a 60 meter class titan mysteriously appears. Yup....when dealing with GIANT MONSTERS, walls just DON'T WORK!

"It's been 5 years" - In Pacific Rim, Stacker Pentecost looks for Rayleigh, the pilot of Gipsy Danger. It's been five years since Rayleigh last piloted an Jaegar, after the day he watched his brother ripped out and probably eaten. In Attack on Titan, Eren witnessed his mother eaten by a Titan after the 60 meter-class breeched the wall, and 5 years later that same Titan reappears! Yup, 5 years seems to be significant!

Class System - Pacific Rim catagorizes the Kaiju in classes, typical known only to get up to Class 4 or "Catagory 4". Attack on Titan also uses a class system for the Titans, measuring in meters, such as "7 meter class" or "15 meter class". Yup...it's easier to know what you're up against with a class system!

There is ALWAYS something bigger - The Kaiju were only known to go up to a Catagory 4, but later they face a Catagory 5 during the last assault. No one ever thought a Titan could breech a 50 meter wall, since they go to about maybe 30 meters, until one day a 60 meter Titan looks over their walls. Yup, remember...don't think they can't get bigger!

Jaegar, our only hope! - "To fight monsters, we created monsters of our own. The Jaegar program was born." That's very true for Pacific Rim and Attack on Titan! For Pacific Rim, an Jaegar (German; "Hunter") is a huge mecha, controlled by two pilots melding their memories together to control the machine, left side and right side (since controlling both is too hard on a person). As proven when the Kaiju broke through the Wall of Life, an Jaegar had to take it down since weapons take days to kill it. And yet they want to shut down the program? In Attack on Titan, we have Eren Jaegar, who after what seems like certain death, can become a Titan! Though in truth, it's more or less summoning a Titan's body, which he is fused to and controls. In this form, he is very strong and is able to take down titan, after titan, after titan, much easier than a soldier using 3D Gear could do. But, it wasn't easy for the higher ups to except this...they feared him, but soon learned of his value. Yup....only an Jaegar can win this fight!

Smart weirdos obsessed with the enemy - In Pacific Rim, we had Newt and his obsession with Kaiju. His colleague refers to him as a "Kaiju groupie", but Newt says he is just trying to understand them. Still, he has a Kaiju tattooed to his arm, and when he needed to find a Kaiju brain to drift with at the black market, he was absolutely ecstatic when he saw all those kaiju parts! The same goes for Hanji Zoe, who adores studying the titans and has an unhealthy fascination with them. When capturing titans alive, she gives them names, and loves observing them, and other crazy antics. Her means of communication are interesting. Both Newt and Hanji, however, are very smart and do pick up on some interesting facts about their enemy. Yup....the key to defeating your enemy might lie in the hands of crazy experimenters obsessed with it.

Badass commanders - In Pacific Rim, we have Stacker Pentecost. In Attack on Titan, we have Dot Pixis. Even without support, Stacker still believes the Jaegars are their only chance at winning this war against the Kaiju. He finds Rayleigh to pilot Gipsy Danger again, as he is the only surviving Mark 3 pilot. Also, Stacker had piloted an Jaegar solo when he saved Mako, like Rayleigh did when he lost his brother and finished the Kaiju off on his own. Dot Pixis sees the potential in using Eren Jaegar's strange power against the titans. Despite the risk, it's their only hope to take back territory for the first time. Yup....these guys are experienced, and know what they're doing when other higher ups do not.

Driven by loss - Rayleigh and Mako both suffered a loss, due to Kaiju attack. For Rayleigh, he was still connected to his brother in the Jaegar when a Kaiju ripped him out and probably ate him. For Mako, she lost her family when she was a little girl, and wants to get into an Jaegar so she can avenge her family! Eren and Mikasa also suffered loss of their family. For Eren, he watched his mother get eaten by a titan. For Mikasa, her family was killed...and disgustingly, not by titans. But inspired by Eren, she's strong in her will to fight, even at its bleakest. They are strong on their own, but even stronger together. Yup...it's fair to say that these two are compatable!

A battle goes terribly wrong! - In Pacific Rim, a Class 4 Kaiju is spotted outside of Hong Kong where The Shattered Dome is located. They send out three of their Jaegars, who sadly get their butts whipped (not because they sucked, either...you probably know why). Two Jaegars are destroyed, along with their pilots, and one is rendered useless. These are pilots you barely get to know. In Attack on Titan, when the 60 meter-class Titan appears after 5 years, our trainees after graduation are faced with the titans...but many of them die, ones we only met briefly! Yup...it sucks to see people we barely met torn apart, when it was almost gonna be a fist-pumping moment! Epic music plays before both these battles, too.

It seems hopeless, until.... - As said above, when the battle goes terrible wrong, it seems utterly hopeless, until in Pacific Rim, Rayleigh convinces Stacker to let him and Mako into the battle, since Gipsy is analog, unlike the other Jaegars. The Kaiju was NOT expecting a fourth Jaegar...she was a total wildcard. And in Attack on Titan, when it seems to be over, even for Mikasa (the best of them all), a mysterious 15 meter class appears, who FIGHTS other Titans and destroys them all. Bet they weren't expecting that! Yup...don't think it's over yet, there might be a wildcard!

Humanity strikes back! - In both, they are faced with threats that are unknown to them, striking fear in their hearts. However, humanity won't sit back and be extinct, either. Even though some see ultimate failure, even at failing parts in both this movie and this anime, if you keep fighting, you can turn it around, despite how hopeless it is! "You must fight!" "Today we are CANCELLING the apocalypse!"

EPIC SOUNDTRACK! - Two tracks from Pacific Rim and Attack on Titan sound perfectly similar in their own way, it is freaky! If you switched these songs for the movie and anime, it would fit!

And there you have it. "Pacific Rim" was an amazing summer flick, and I had so much fun watching it. It reminds us what a movie should be! "Attack on Titan" is one of the best anime I had seen in awhile. Both have a pretty basic plot, "unknown danger threatens humanity, and we must fight back!" but takes it another level. You care for these characters. You'll be fist-pumping, gasping, crying, and sometimes even laughing....all in all, both deliver what it promises, plus a little more. Inspiring, heart-pounding, and some of the best stuff you'll see in 2013!

I love your post! I saw Pacific Rim in theaters and I was utterly pleased. I was also convinced that it's a whole lot better than the Tranformers movies by Michael Bay, and still am to this day. I like that the relationship between Raleigh and Mako is light and that there are no ridiculous romance scenes to ruin the movie. They're most likely taking their time to get to know each other. The visual-sound effects were amazing and the soundtrack is just. Plain. AWESOME!

Attack on Titan, on the other hand, I haven't seen the anime and only skimmed through the first volume of the manga. Just doing the latter rendered me with enough nightmare fuel for about a month. After wondering through the AoT wikia site, I got to hand it to the creator for making the characters look more human as well as be human, i.e. the fear of titans and being eaten alive. I would be too!. The only difference between the titans and kaiju is that the titans may look like humanoid giants, but good god, they're a lot creepier with that stony Cheshire Cat smile on their faces. The kaiju, big, ugly and destructive, yes, but not as creepy. *shudders*

Let's just say that I'm trying to desensitize myself before I proceed with watching the anime and/or reading the manga.

Hi! I enjoyed reading this and I'm really glad to be able to escape from all those annoying "Pacific Rim is an Evangelion/SnK/etc rip-off" kind of discussions (X__X)

I just watched Pacific Rim a few days back (for a school project - I wouldn't have watched it otherwise and it would be a huge waste) and I think it's a really good movie! I've never watched Evangelion so I'm not so sure what is this similarity fans are talking about but I LOVEEE both SnK and Pacific Rim! These parallels are cool but I don't see Pacific Rim as a rip-off as what others claim them to be. After all, majority of stories aren't original in the first place right? Sheesh...(-_-) Or maybe it's just me being an overly-obsessed otaku and mecha fan lol ;w;

And as for an anime adaptation of Pacific Rim, all of my yes! But first I gotta find the Japanese dub of the movie (Sugita Tomokazu and Namikawa Daisuke are in it ahslkjfhskdjgaagjkhakljhf /fangirl squeals/) And I hope the rumoured live-action SnK movie will be as good, or even better!

Glad you enjoyed my post! I don't see either as a rip off of each other, I just love the parallels of similarities~ It was an excellent movie, and I do hope a sequel is made as that would be epic (and to have more Newt scences because Newt is awesome). And it would be cool if there was a live-action SnK, though man would the violence look more gruesome XD

And as for me with the NGE arguements, I have seen Evangelion, and literally, the ONLY major similarity I see with NGE and Pacific Rim is having to sync with your mecha (and even then, Pacific Rim is more advanced with using two pilots melding memories and using your body to move the mech, while Eva pilots still use hand controls though it might be different in Rebuild, but I haven't seen the reboot movies yet...plus Evas aren't 100% machine and can reject pilots, Jaegars are 100% machine and can be piloted by anyone) and argueably, the scene with Mako chasing the R.A.B.B.I.T. and they had to cut the power might be seen as similar to when Rei couldn't sync properly with Unit 00 and it freaked out, so they had to eject her and turn off Unit 00 (which in itself is still a different situation)....besides that, both are WAY DIFFERENT! Even their invading enemies have no similarities XD

Very much agreed! Aha Newt! Someone should put both him and Hanji together, they'd be best buddies for sure LOL :3 As for the live-action SnK, I'd like to see how they'll pull the 3DMG effects afhjakdhf omg it'd be so cool! o(≧▽≦)o How about a 3D movie for those violence scenes eh? (*ΦωΦ*)

Oh I see :0 Evas are sorta like cyborgs as what I've heard, right? O.o And Evangelion's enemies are called...angels...aren't they? Oh geez I should really start on that series OTL Well as I've mentioned before, stories will surely be inspired from another. The director even said Cherno Alpha and Coyote Tango's designs were inspired by Gundams (it's common to base an idea off something you like ;w; ) Are you currently watching Buddy Complex? The mecha pilots also sync their minds through 'coupling' but instead of piloting the same mecha, they pilot two different ones which are a pair. But in no way do I see these stories as rip-offs. Some people are just over-reacting zzz why can't they just calm down and watch the shows as they are meant to be watched? ;A;

Oh my gosh, live-acting 3D gear would be amazing! And I have seen fanart of Hanji and Newt, kyaah it's awesome!

I haven't seen Buddy Complex, maybe I should check it out. I love mecha myself, and I love seeing all the different ways it can be taken. Even when involving sync; I love the different ways. (I know, right? Let us just watch a show as it is meant to be! Unless it is an obvious rip-off....like that movie Atlantic Rim, holy crap XD)

HAHAHA I was about to read this, but then you warned about spoilers, then I stopped >xD I never watched Pacific Rim yet, nor have I read the manga of Attack on Titan, so I didn't want to get spoiled LOOOOOL. BUT ATTACK ON TITAN IS <3

Oh yeah! And you will laugh when you find out the similarities, it is epic! Are you caught up with Attack on Titan? (As long as you have got to, like...episode 14 or so, it's fine). Spoilers are pretty minor for Pacific Rim, mostly it pertains to the plot it delivers for Pacific Rim, but I recommend watching first so you understand what I am talking about ^.^